Anyone serious about their retirement will want to consider taking advantage of Automatic Investment Plans (AIPs).
Designed specifically to offer an almost hands-free approach to investing that few other opportunities provide, Automatic Investing Plans allow individual investors the opportunity to divert funds to specific investments at regular intervals with those funds later invested very specifically according to a predefined strategy or as part of a predefined portfolio.
All of this is done 100% on autopilot no matter what, simplifying and streamlining the investment process in a way that few other opportunities can.
To figure out whether or not Automatic Investing Plan solutions are right for you we’ve put together this quick guide.
Automatic Investing Plans 101
The easiest way to wrap your head around AIP solutions is to simply think about the kinds of 401(k) programs almost all employers offer their employees.
When you decide to opt into a 401(k) program from your employer a portion of your paycheck is diverted directly into this investment account automatically, every single time you get a paycheck, without fail and without exception.
This autopilot approach to investment eliminates all the guesswork and turns your cash and capital into a passively managed system that offers a whole host of benefits (not the least of which may be an employer matching program that basically acts as free money).
Finding the Right AIP
The 401(k) programs you can take advantage of through work aren’t the only AIP options out there, though.
Private organizations, financial institutions, and investment organizations also offer plenty of Automatic Investing Plan opportunities that you might be interested in taking advantage of. Capital One (the financial services company most famous for their credit cards) offers a handful of AIPs that may be attractive to you, allowing you to automate a big chunk of your private investments in ways that you might not have been able to on your own.
Dividend Reinvestment Plans can also be considered AIPs, in that they allow you to reinvest the cash dividends you would have received into additional shares (or fractional shares) of the stocks you own that are paying dividends to begin with.
This kind of AIP is a fantastic way to grow your wealth in a hurry but you’ll want to consider taking advantage of robo-advisor programs and other AIP solutions, too before you jump right in.
The first of all, you’ll want to know that you are signing on board for an automatic investment system that is 100% legitimate, works as intended, and offers you the freedom and flexibility not only to establish your own parameters for investing but also allow you to adjust and modify those parameters on-the-fly.
You are, after all, in complete and total control of your financial freedom from top to bottom. It can be very liberating to separate your investments from the amount of time you have available to research and do your due diligence about different opportunities – but you need to know that the automation is helping you make more successful investments and not just making easier investments.